


Poseidon

by Skogmus



Category: Ackley Bridge (TV)
Genre: Day At The Beach, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 13:07:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15340509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skogmus/pseuds/Skogmus
Summary: It's beach time





	Poseidon

They go after school on a Wednesday.

It’s maybe not the best weather to go to the beach in, cloudy and bleak, but it’s warm and besides, now they can have the whole beach to themselves. It’s kind of the point anyway, to be alone and if not hidden at least out of sight. And it’s not raining, although it had been a bit of a drizzle earlier. Naveed looks especially lovely in this light, all soft and all—but then again, one could argue that Naveed looks lovely in all kinds of light.  
“Found one!” the lovely boy in question shouts, and Cory hurries along with his bucket. Naveed smiles up at him from his crouched down position as he throws the blue mussel in the bucket. It’s not a huge number of mussels in there, barely five, one is so small it hardly counts. Naveed huffs. “It’s a good thing we’re not staying here forever.”

“I wouldn’t mind,” Cory smiles. He likes the beach. Him and Jordan would always come down here in the summer as children. Jordan was slow in learning how to swim, so Cory would try and teach him every year—with varying levels of success. Still, when Jordan was, what twelve? He finally did it. And it was not a summer too late because that was the last summer they hung out together on the beach. 

“Maybe I wouldn’t mind either,” Naveed says after a beat. “It’s nice out here.”

“Yeah.” Cory bends down to pick another mussel; it’s a big one. But, it’s empty. They’ve found lots of empty ones around on the beach. He throws it harshly to the ground. 

“I’m tired of this,” Naveed says and wipes off his forehead. “We’ve probably picked every blue mussel in all of Ackley already. Let’s go for a swim, eh?” 

“Alright.” Cory puts down the bucket and takes off his tie. His shirt follows, and his trousers too. It’s not bathing temperature per se; but he’s all sweaty and gross. It’ll be nice. “Race you!” 

“No wait,” Naveed shouts, kicking off his shoes and desperately tugging off his trousers, but Cory is miles in front of him already. Cory raises his fist in victory as the waves roll on his feet, but grimaces soon after. The water is so cold it hurts, but he’s not some coward so he braves on. He has to stop when he’s stomach-deep though, his body refusing to move any longer—and then he’s shoved under! And he gasps underwater, swallows probably a whole litre of awful saltwater and it burns his throat, but then he’s dragged up again. He’s both blind and deaf at first, but then he hears Naveed laugh and then he sees Naveed laugh.

“I’ll murder you,” Cory says and he’s only halfway joking. “I’ll bloody murder you,” and Naveed screams and swims away—but there’s a reason why Cory was the one who taught Jordan to swim. He’s a fucking. good. swimmer.  
But Naveed’s not half bad either. He swims fast, gracefully and Cory wonders if it’s because he’s an ice skater or if Naveed is simply graceful and good at everything. Cory is, however, an unstoppable force (he broke Riz’s neck) so he catches up with him and throws his whole self on him, and howling, they both go underwater. Naveed fights himself free and crawls away, and Cory half-heartedly chase him. He just splashes him though. 

“The water’s really shit cold,” Naveed says. “Let’s go back up.” 

“Thought you were used to the cold.” Cory splashes on Naveed again, who obviously splashes double as hard back.

“They can hear your teeth rattle all the way to the moon, Wilson, so shut it.” With his long arms Naveed swims in to the beach, breath coming out sharply and explosive. Cory follows. He thinks he’ll always follow Naveed.  
It’s somehow even colder to come up from the water and they don’t even have towels. Cory takes his school jacket and wipes of the worst of the water, not really caring if he ruins it. It’s only school after all. He throws it to Naveed so that he won’t have ruin his own. 

The wind catches up and Cory hurries to put on his shirt and shoes and climb up the little slope up from the beach. He picks sticks and logs and carries them all in his hands, dumps them in front of Naveed. “Ever went to boy scouts?”

“Uh, once. And I do mean one time and then I locked myself into the bathroom when it was time to go the next time so I wouldn’t have to go.” Naveed smiles a bit sheepishly. “Never been a fan of dirt.”

Cory laughs as he builds the fire. “Jordan did something similar.” He reaches into his backpack and pulls out matches and newspaper and a roll of aluminium foil, which he throws at Naveed. “Can you wrap in the mussels?”

“Sure.” Naveed wraps them while Cory works hard against the wind. It blows out the flames but Cory knows how to use it to his advantage, and he builds and he builds and finally it seems to burn on its own.

“That’s hot,” Naveed comments and Cory isn’t sure what he means.

“We should probably wait until it has died down a little,” Cory says and warms his frozen hands on the fire. A shiver runs through him.

“Are you cold? Poor thing,” Naveed says and starts rummaging through his backpack. He drags out a pink monstrosity and flings it to Cory. “Here.”

It’s a beanie hat. “Is this you mum’s?” Cory asks cautiously. 

“Nah, it’s mine. Coward?” Naveed sits back down and stares pointedly at the hat.  
Cory feels his face heat but he puts it on before Naveed can say anything.  
“You look cute.” Naveed winks at him and Cory ducks his head. He doesn’t know why he’s embarrassed. It’s only a colour, after all. And the hat warms. He can imagine it is nice to have when skating.

“I should get more wood,” Cory says and stands up, clearing his throat as he does. “You can just put the mussels on the glows.” He walks up the slope again, finding some thin nice dry sticks. They’re maybe not that necessary, but Cory needed a breather to calm himself a bit. It’s stupid. 

But he doesn’t need long. He waves to Naveed as he goes back, although he’s sure he’s looking like a signal torch in the pink hat. His shoes sink nicely down in the sand, and he wants to make sure he doesn’t step on any shell. It’s good he does because the most beautiful conch lays there waiting for him, and Cory doesn’t challenge fate so he picks it up with him. “Look,” he says to Naveed when he gets there. “It’s almost whole.” And it is. It’s only a bit broken at the beginning. 

“It’s gorgeous,” Naveed says and reaches out to tough it, but he stops right before. And then Cory gets his best idea yet. He drags out his shoelace and ties it around the conch. 

“Come here,” he says and Naveed raises his eyebrows. 

“Aright.” And then he sits down in Cory’s lap like it’s not even a big deal, which, ok. Ok. Carefully, Cory ties the shoelace around his neck. 

“There,” he says. “It’s for the hat.”

“You’re not actually getting my hat,” Naveed says. “But I’m keeping this. I look like Poseidon.” He beams at his new necklace.

Cory swallows thickly. “Poseidon?”

“Yeah? You know, God of the sea?”

Naveed certainly looks like some sort of God now and it’s unnerving. It should be illegal to be that handsome. Naveed should be arrested for handsome-crimes. “Yeah,” Cory says. “You do look like Poseidon. That’s why you almost drowned me, isn’t it.”

“Aren’t you over that yet,” Naveed says and rolls his eyes. 

“Strangely not.” Cory is tired so he lays down in the soft sand.  
The waves roll and they roll, he can hear the wind and distant seagulls and the crackling of the fire and Naveed breathing, and if he closes his eyes he can maybe hear a baby squeal that’s definitely not there. He’s not sure if it’s Jordan when he was small or if it’s… If it’s Jamie. 

“What are you thinking about,” Naveed says softly and Cory opens his eyes again and sits up and stares directly into him, and it’s startling. 

“My son,” he mumbles and ducks his head. 

“Oh.” Naveed stares into the fire. “What’s his name?”

“Jamie.” 

“How old is he, now?”

Uhhh. “I’m… not sure?” Cory winces. “You think I should be there for him. Be a proper dad.” He can’t, is the problem. He has a life to live. He doesn’t… He shouldn’t have to worry about a baby, now, should he? Some part of him is angry, he realises. Candice could have gotten rid of him a number of times and freed them all of this problem. 

Naveed shrugs. “That’s up to you,” but then his face softens. “Why haven’t you?”

“It’s not—I don’t—me and Candice, we weren’t—you know?” Cory tries, and uh, fails miserably to explain. He crosses his arms over his chest. “Besides, I don’t know how to do it.”

“It? What? Being a dad?” 

Cory nods. 

“It can’t be that hard,” Naveed says. “Just… take the kid fishing once in a while? He’s already living with Candice, isn’t he? So, when… when things get better for you and Jordan, he could come over, right? And if you want me to, I’ll help you. I’ll be fun uncle Nav!” He grins, cocks his head. “We could take him here, when he’s a bit older. Teach him to swim.”

“I taught Jordan to swim.”

“See? You’re practically a dad already!”

“I taught him to ride a bike too. Dad was teaching him, but then everything with mum happened and stuff…” 

Naveed puts a hand on his shoulder. “You alright?”

“I’m fine,” Cory smiles and he means it. He really, really means it. His heart feels as though it’s bursting and he feels electricity move up and down from his shoulder to the rest of his body. And Naveed looks so handsome with his necklace, a prince made of sea foam or something, so Cory leans in and kisses him on the corner of his mouth. He can feel it quirk upwards. 

“What was that for,” Naveed says when he pulls away. He touches the spot where Cory’s lips had been mere seconds ago with his thumb. 

Cory shrugs. “Felt like it.” He looks at the lump of aluminium foil at the fire. “They’re probably done now.”

“Oh, finally! I’m starving.” Naveed grabs a stick and carefully pushes the lump out of the fire. It rolls miserably down in the sand. Putting his shirt sleeves over his hands he bows down and picks it up, huffing a bit as it undoubtly burns through his thin shirt. He opens the package and sure enough, in there lays open and steaming blue mussels. “Did we bring forks?”

Wops. Cory shakes his head. “We’ll just eat it as cavemen I suppose.” 

“Yeah,” Naveed says. “Really channel my ancient god energy.” He picks one up and opens it fully, before he tears the little meat out and puts the whole thing in his mouth. He chews thoughtfully. “I mean, it’s not the worst thing I’ve eaten.”

“It’s a delicatesse, moron.” Cory eats one himself and even if Naveed’s right, it tastes like old summers and nostalgia, which is a lot of flavour in one tiny mussel. “You as a sea god should know.”

“True, it’s just that I’m used to more sea-y food than this, like roasted seaweed. That’s food for a god, let me tell you.”

“Right.” Cory eats another mussel. “Did you mean what you said? About Jamie.”

“I did.” 

“Because you’re right, but I’m worried about being alone with him.” He turns to Naveed and he feels maybe but a bit desperate. “I don’t know anything about babies.”

“Lucky for you, I do.” Naveed straightens a bit. “I used to babysit my cousins all the time.”

“Oh.”

“An I think it’s good that you do this, Cory. I think the kid needs it.”

“Maybe.” Tired, Cory leans on Naveed’s shoulder. He plays with his hair. He likes Naveed’s hair. 

“I think your hair is swell too,” Naveed says and Cory blinks.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to… say that out loud.” Which is the most embarrassing thing he’s ever said, maybe. He can feel Naveed shake. “Don’t laugh at me.”

“Sorry,” Naveed forces through between his giggles. “I really am sorry,” he says when he’s calmed down a bit and he bow down and kisses Cory’s temple. “Thanks for today. It’s been really nice.”

“It has,” Cory whispers. “But I think we should go home now.”

Neither move for a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> hng can't belive I'm getting back into writing in english after hundreds of years


End file.
